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In a section on immigration, Harper said demands by the NDP and Liberals to bring in more refugees from war-torn Syria are “reckless” because such a rapid increase in asylum-seekers would ignore the need to screen out possible terrorists trying to sneak into Canada.

“These guys would have . . . us throwing open our borders (to) literally hundreds of thousands of people coming without any kind of security check or documents, that would have been an enormous mistake,” Harper said.

“Mr. Harper plays fear all the time, fears of others . . . we have a prime minister who prefers to pander to fear,” Trudeau said, trying to speak over the Conservative leader as the three men stood side-by-side at three podiums.

Both Mulcair and Trudeau said neither party has advocated setting aside security reviews of refugees from the Syria-Iraq refugees.

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“Canadians want a prime minister who understands the sense of urgency that we all feel when we see the current crisis in Syria,” Mulcair said. “Mr. Harper, unfortunately and it’s undignified, is fear-mongering.” He said the Conservatives should stop using “the security excuse as a pretext to do nothing.”

Harper replied the Conservatives are bringing in more refugees quickly from Syria and have announced a plan under which Ottawa will match Canadians’ charitable donations to Syria.

Over 90 minutes, the leaders laid out three different visions on reviving the economy, global warming, household debt and taxation in a verbal scramble whose urgency reflected the very tight race in the Oct. 19 election.

Mulcair and Trudeau accused Harper’s Conservative government of standing by while Canadians saw their economic hopes and job prospects deteriorate over a decade.

“You’ve been stuck in a motorcade for the last 10 years,” Trudeau said at one point to Harper, accusing the Conservative leader of being out of touch with ordinary Canadians.

Trudeau said it’s time to open Ottawa’s treasury to boost the economy, referring to his plan to run up to $10 billion in federal deficits a year for three years to speed up economic growth.

“We’re going to run three modest deficits in order to pay” for an economic renewal plan, Trudeau said. “Those are the kinds of investments that Mr. Harper hasn’t made for 10 years and if you think this economy’s doing great, then Mr. Harper’s your guy. But if you need a change, the Liberal party has a plan.”

“Look, I’ve never said things are great,” Harper said. “What I’ve said is we’re living in a very unstable global economic environment. The questions I’d ask people are the following: In the last 10 years, where would you rather have been in all of this global economic instability than Canada?”

Mulcair slammed the Conservative strategy of focusing on natural resources as a key to future prosperity. “Harper put all his eggs into one basket and then he dropped the basket — 400,000 well-paid manufacturing jobs lost on his watch,” the NDP leader said.

Mulcair said his party would kick-start the economy, help manufacturing, and cut small and medium-sized business taxes “because they create 80 per cent of new jobs in this country.” He said the NDP would help Canadians balance their work and family lives by bringing in a national, $15-a-day childcare plan.

Harper said an NDP or Liberal government would drive up taxes and imperil the economy by running budget deficits.

“Let’s be frank about Mr. Trudeau’s plan,” Harper said. “The reason Mr. Trudeau is running deficits is not because he has some underlying economic philosophy. It’s because he went around the country and promised far more money than he actually had and found out that taxing a few wealthy people a little bit does not cover that and so now he’s trying to run saying deficits are a good thing,” Harper said. It was a reference to the Liberals’ plan to tax those who make over $200,000 a year to pay for middle-class tax breaks.

“Mr. Harper, you have run deficits in good years. You have run deficits in bad years. The only time you’ve said the deficits are not going to be run is in election years,” Trudeau shot back.

Harper said the NDP left an economic mess when in power in Ontario, British Columbia and other provinces. And he pointed to the deficits run up by Liberal governments in Ontario.

Mulcair said Canada has to overhaul its energy and environmental plans. The NDP favours a cap and trade system to create a market for emissions that will reduce greenhouse gases, Mulcair said, adding that the Conservative claim that such a plan would saddle Canadians with a $21-billion bill is false.

Trudeau said he would work with the provinces to curb greenhouse gas emissions. “For 10 years, under Mr. Harper, with no leadership on the environment, provinces have moved forward,” Trudeau commented, saying the four biggest provinces are committed to put a price on carbon.

Elizabeth May, who was not invited to participate in the debate, provided running commentary in videos she posted on Twitter from Victoria, B.C.

She questioned whether the concept that limiting the debate to three leaders made sense, since it created a situation where she couldn’t make sense of “those three men arguing over each other incomprehensibly.”

May attacked Harper’s recently announced 2014 budget surplus, arguing that it was attained by cutting money earmarked for refugees, First Nations and infrastructure.

“It’s true, if you put the brakes on spending for important programs . . . then you can get a surplus,” she said. “Not a great record.”

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